When most people think of the weekend the thought of relaxation and time away from the office often came to mind. Exception: healers. I rarely ever got a weekend to myself and that past weekend was no exception. I was still scheduled to work those shifts alongside Thomas, but technically I no longer needed him to supervise me. Therefore it acted as a bit of a trial period since Thomas basically left me to my own devices. He still made himself readily available if I had any questions, but aside from that I was completely on my own and for the first time I truly felt like a real healer.

And when the schedules were posted in Human Resources on Sunday I felt like whooping with total abandon at the top of my lungs. Okay, maybe that was taking my excitement a bit too far, but you get it: I was happy.

I didn’t even care that I had a shift in the Dai Llewellyn ward that week. All that mattered was that I was completely on my own as a healer. I also had a couple shifts labelled as individual study, which I assumed was the time I was meant to spend in the lab with the team that didn’t want me. That was perhaps the only thing I wasn’t looking forward to. I knew I should have been thrilled and proud of myself, but I couldn’t help the feeling that I was forcing my presence on a group that wouldn’t ever welcome me. It was true that I still hadn’t met any of the rest of the team, but suddenly Tuesday seemed too soon for me to officially join the team.

Since I didn’t have to be into work until eight on Monday evening for my shift on the Accidental Spell Damage floor, I wound up spending the prior day in bed asleep. All my shifts this week were night shifts. Well, except for the two shifts I was scheduled in the lab. It was the opposite of what I was used to. Usually I worked day shifts with the occasional night shift thrown into the mix. I guess that was changing now that I was on my own. God, I just couldn’t think that enough times and get used to it. I was an official healer now. I even had a new ID badge and everything, plus it was illuminated. ILLUMINATED, blimey, guess that meant I was really growing up.

By the time I arrived at work that evening, I was feeling more rested than I had in a while. I could get used to working night shifts if it meant I would actually get sleep since my friends were at work during the weekdays. I punched in and reported to Healer Nadine Fuller before heading to Accidental Spell Damage on the fourth floor. Apparently fully certified Healers had to check in with the Human Resources healer rep at the beginning of each of their shifts. I had only met Healer Fuller briefly when she had spoken to my training class before we started clocking in hours at the hospital. She was an older woman, probably in her sixties, who wore her hair back and had a permanently severe expression on her face. She had scared me then, and she still scared me now. I had heard from other healers that she had a temper when she got angry. I hoped I would never fall victim to one of her verbal lashings.

Healer Fuller stared down at an open manila folder before her, perusing the week’s schedule again no doubt. “Louis Weasley... ah, here you are; Accidental Spell Damage floor for ten hours. I trust,” she said, looking up at him, “that you are ready to handle patients on your own now.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, trying not to sound as scared as I was. “Thomas, err, I mean, Healer Newman told me I was at my best on the fourth floor while he was supervising me.”

“Hmm, that still remains to be unseen since you’re still fresh and have just finished your supervision hours,” Healer Fuller said. “But I did speak with Healer Newman and he did recommend you to the fourth floor. But all healers need to be versatile on all floors, not just one floor, when they’re starting out before they’ve gained seniority and can narrow down to a specialized area of study.”

My voice caught and I wasn’t sure if it was because I wasn’t sure if she wanted me to respond or not, or if I was afraid of the anal woman before me.

“Of course, you seem to be on a faster track than most, Healer Weasley,” Healer Fuller said. “You’re already assigned to conduct specialized research. I only hope you don’t ruin any of the previous research that has been found by the team. You’ll need to ease into the research since there’s already quite a bit of material that’s been massed together these past few months.”

I nodded. It felt weird to be addressed as a healer by a woman that seemed to be insulting me. She didn’t come right out with it, but I knew she thought I was too young and naive to be on a research team. Here was yet another person I had to prove myself to; the list just kept growing.

“Do you have any further questions?”

I thought for a moment. “Not that I can think of.”

“Then you’re free to head to the fourth floor now,” Healer Fuller said. “Just know,” she added, causing me to turn back around at the door, “that I have eyes all over this hospital and if you even make one tiny mistake, I’ll find out about it.”

Swallowing back the lump that had formed in my throat, I nodded. I rode the lifts down to the fourth floor after leaving Healer Fuller’s office and the moment I stepped out into the hall I was ambushed by a healer.

“It’s about time,” the witch said, clearly agitated. “I was supposed to be off twenty minutes ago. You are Healer Weasley, right?”

“That’s me,” I said.

“Good, then all you have to do is find Healer Matthews and he’ll fill you in on the part of the ward you’re assigned to because I’m leaving. Word of advice for next time before I go, don’t be late.”

I wasn’t able to get another word out before the lift doors slid closed, shutting her out of my vision. I would feel bad, but it was hard to feel remorse for someone that had brushed me off as if I were a mere speck of dust. I knew how tiring it felt at the end of a shift, but that was still no excuse.

I nodded. It seemed like I was doing a helluva a lot of nodding already and I wasn’t even thirty minutes into my shift yet.

“Did you already run into Healer Short?”

I scrunched my brow. “Sorry, not sure I know who that is.”

“Short, blond witch with a fiery attitude,” Healer Matthews said, describing the witch that had pounced when I had stepped out of the lift. “You’re her relieve.”

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “She ran out of here pretty fast.”

“That’s because she has a blind date tonight,” Healer Matthews said, smirking. “Her parents are on her to find a bloke and its stressing her out, but don’t tell her I told you.”

I mimed zipping my lips shut.

“Alright, so you have the left side of the ward for the night,” Healer Matthews said. “And Healer Jacobson has the right side. If you run into any problems, then I’ll be in my office at the end of the ward. But I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

Yep, you’ve guessed it. I had worked with Healer Matthews before because he and Thomas were friends. Therefore he knew how good I was on this floor in particular. I had already proved myself capable in his eyes and I was glad he was overseeing the fourth floor that night.

Things were pretty quiet on the fourth floor. I did wait on a few patients, but I mostly spent my hours in the staff room that separated the left ward from the right. There wasn’t anything special about the staff rooms that were located on each floor; they were just there for us lower-ranked healers that didn’t have their own offices to spend down time in. In fact, I ended up being paged up to the Dai Llewellyn ward toward the end of my shift at half after four in the morning since there was only one healer manning that whole ward by themselves and they were currently on break when one of the patients buzzed in for assistance. It wasn’t until I had reached the room that I realised it had been Jonah who had buzzed.

Sure, I liked to think that I was good with kids, but I still had the image of Jonah sprawled out on that gurney, covered in blood, the night he had been brought in burned into my mind. Taking a deep breath before pushing it to the back of my mind, I entered the room to find him sitting up in bed with tear tracks on his fair, rosy cheeks that still had a bit of baby fat. I pulled a chair over to the bed and sat down on it backwards, resting my arms on the back.

“What are you doing up this early, little buddy,” I said, choosing a more laidback approach versus the professional way I handled the older patients. I wanted to make sure Jonah was comfortable around me enough to tell me what the matter was before diving into healer mode. He was just a kid after all. I knew from Victoire that Remus was fussy when he had to go in for check-ups after his transformations, so I assumed Jonah might feel uneasy around healers, too. Plus, I could remember feeling insecure toward healers when I had to come in for regular check-ups when I had been his age.

“I miss my mummy and daddy,” Jonah sniffled.

“Ah, well I’m sure they’ll visit later today,” I said since the kid’s parents were, for the most part, usually with him. “Visiting hours start within the next few of hours.”

“But they won’t be coming today,” Jonah said. “It’s September first, which means they have to take my brother and sister to Kings Cross to catch the train to Hogwarts. They’ll be too busy to visit.”

“Nonsense,” I said. “I’m sure they’ll come after dropping them off.”

“No they won’t.”

The way the kid’s eyes looked big and watery was snagging at my heartstrings. “How can you be so sure?”

“Well, how about I stay with you for the rest of my shift,” I said. “That way you won’t be alone. I could go get a pack of Exploding Snap from the rec room and we could build a card castle out of it until it blows up.”

I could tell that I had piqued the kid’s interest by the way the corner of his mouth perked slightly upward as he wiped the tears from his shiny, brown eyes.

“I’ll be right back.”

It took me several minutes after reaching the rec room to locate a deck of Exploding Snap cards, but when I did I wasted no time in heading back to Jonah’s room to show him that I hadn’t forgotten about him. For the remaining hour of my shift I spent it sitting on the cold, hard tile of Jonah’s room with him sitting across from me in his robe with an impressive card castle in construction between us.

“I bet you can’t wait until you’re out of St. Mungo’s.”

Jonah nodded. He was perhaps the most serious little boy I had ever come across, and I had seen quite a number of children since I had started healing.

“What would you rather be doing?”

I was trying to break Jonah’s reserve, get him feeling more comfortable and relaxed despite being stuck in the hospital. No kid wanted to spend his days in a hospital.

“I dunno,” Jonah shrugged his small shoulders up before slouching forward again. “I guess flying my broomstick in the backyard. It doesn’t go high, but the speed on it is pretty fast.”

“Sounds great,” I said. “I used to love having flying races with my cousins, even if I never was the best flyer. I may be rubbish, but feeling the wind blow your hair from her forehead is perhaps one of the best feelings.”

“I’m the best flyer,” Jonah informed me. “My daddy says so. He says that I’d make a great seeker when I’m at Hogwarts...” Suddenly Jonah got quiet and I had a suspicion as to why.

“You’ll still be able to go to Hogwarts,” I said. “You do know that, right?”

“Yeah right,” Jonah said. “Who would want me at Hogwarts now that I’m going to turn into a monster?”

“You’re not a monster,” I said. “And I happen to know that Hogwarts has made allowances so that students in similar positions as yours have been able to attend. In fact, my brother-in-law’s Dad had been turned when he was a kid and he was admitted into Hogwarts.”

“Seriously,” Jonah said, and I could tell he was in awe.

“Yeah, seriously,” I said. “My nephew is also a werewolf, too, though he’s only three but the headmaster has already agreed to accept him into Hogwarts when he turns eleven. Hogwarts takes necessary precautions to allow students that need them so that they can attend just like every other young witch or wizard.”

“Will it hurt?”

The topic changed so suddenly that for a second I wasn’t sure what Jonah was referring to. Then I remembered that he hadn’t yet transformed yet. I did the math in my head and realised that there was to be a full moon in sixteen days. Maybe I could talk to Victoire about bringing Remmy up to meet Jonah so that the kid knew he wasn’t alone in this whole ordeal. I had no idea what to say to him, but I had to at least try to ease his thoughts.

“Maybe a little,” I said. “But one of the potions you’re on, Wolfsbane, will make the transformation a lot easier for you.”

“Is there a way to stop the transformation from happening?”

My heart hurt as I shook my head. “’Fraid not, bud. There’s no cure.”

Jonah looked down, hopes deflating all at once. Then, at that precise moment, our card castle decided it was time to explode. We were surrounded by black smoke for several minutes before it all settled and it was a few more until we had finished coughing and sputtering.

“That was wicked,” were the first words out of Jonah’s mouth. “Did you see that explosion? It went WHOOSH all at the same time.” He made an outward motion with his arms to demonstrate and it reminded me of Remmy.

Just then the door pushed the rest of the way open and I turned to see Thomas enter. “I heard the boom from down the hall, what’s going on in here?”

I stood up, helping Jonah stand and get back into bed while I explained to Thomas that we had just been building with Exploding Snap cards. Then he asked me if I knew what time it was, which I suppose was his way of trying to subtly tell me that my shift had ended fifteen minutes ago. I bumped fists with Jonah and told him I’d see him the next day, since you know, I was scheduled to work the Dai Llewellyn ward on Wednesday, and left. I had to head home to catch a bit of sleep before I had to be back that afternoon for my first researching shift. I only hoped that the rest of the team wasn’t as judgemental to my age as Miranda, Will, and Quentin had been.

Author's Note: Hope y'all enjoyed this update! (: I had a lot of fun writing this chapter.

Just a side note, the next chapter won't be going up until 3 weeks from today since final exam week is in 2 weeks and I'm only halfway through writing chapter six, and I doubt I'll find the time to finish writing it since I have so much other things to get done before the semester ends. I'm in the final crunch, but don't worry updates will go back to every other week afterward (it's just this one update that'll be pushed back a week). And I'll be a university graduate on April 26th. So freakin' excited (picking up my cap and gown next week w/ tickets)!

Anyway, thanks for reading and I'd love it if you could leave a review telling me what you thought of the chapter as I love feedback (and I always respond back to reviews). And thanks to everyone who has left reviews on previous chapters, too! I really appreciate it! (: